1.5
Thank you to the publisher and Netgally for providing me with an audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.. All opinions are my own.
The only reason why I rounded up to two stars is because I do think there is a story worth telling in there but the execution just wasn't it for me and the biggest problem with this book is the way that it was marketed. Since marketing isn't really the author's fault. I don't know who decided to categorize this as humor or romance but it just is not- if you are looking for a romcom type of book, look somewhere else. I also feel like the marketing was going for a "girl is living in gym and hijinks ensue"- NOPE, no hijinks just a lot of repetition.
I don't know if this is a good thing of not because I assume that this is a very real anxiety response that people have but the way that the MC handles her situation in the book stressed me out and the longer it dragged on just made me more and more anxious.
The last thing I have to say is that I am really mad that a romance storyline was just chucked in there at the end. Here is the thing, the MC clearly has a lot of work to do, beyond just the anxiety stuff. Her ex was right for breaking up with her and honestly, I can't believe he stayed with her for as long as he did. I would much prefer, her have the maturity to say that she needs to do some work instead of just jumping into a new relationship. Also, there was no need for it in the story and they had no chemistry so I just feel like it was tacked on at the end so that this book could be marketed as romance and I have already expressed how much I hated that marketing.

I think I am alone in that this book doesnt match the cover or the description. This isnt a story of romcom, gym blunders and dating. this is a story about a toxic relationship, depression, anxiety and then nearly glorify eating disorders and over exercize. for that I didnt like the main character so it was a no for me.

Unfortunately, this was dull. As a fat woman with anxiety whose dog died in the past year, I should have connected with the main character (or at least I was expecting to) but I really struggled. I DNF’d the ebook but soldiered on with the audio. I kept thinking, surely this can’t be it, there must be more story coming soon but it was flat.

I feel terrible because it’s a huge achievement to write a book. I’m hoping I’m the minority.

TW for anxiety, pet death, panic attacks.

Kat arrives at a gym and within the hour is sacked and dumped. She has a panic attack every time she tries to leave. The book is in first person narrative and you are therefore in Kat’s head. Not a happy character. She drinks a lot, spends a lot and doesn’t really take responsibility for her actions; for example she doesn’t understand why she was fired but later says she has been snapping at people for months and can’t stop herself.

Kat misses many counselling sessions and seemed to just use her emotional support pet as therapy. Then her pet dies.

She gets a job in the gym day care and apparently it’s fine to encourage children to play guns and mimic the noise of what I presume is a machine gun (well it’s an American book so I guess they don’t discourage it as much).

There are countless name drops of celebrities - some I’ve not even heard of but get the idea they are very famous.

I listened to the audio so unsure if the narrator can’t say the name Laura or if the character was called something sounding like Lure-a.

This is not a romcom. Although Kat speaks to a few men there is nothing that makes the reader want her to get together with any of them. I also didn’t feel that I particularly liked Kat or any character. I didn’t find the comedy element either. This felt like it was about anxiety with the most important part (her breakthrough) being thrown into one chapter at the end. She couldn’t speak to anyone about it but then talks to everyone. As a sufferer myself I found this unrealistic.

Many thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

Um, I thought this would be a hilarious rom com but instead I got stuck inside the mind of a woman with extreme anxiety having a panic attack. I listened to the audiobook and knew from the first few minutes that this book would not be fun. The narrator was very serious and things that were supposed to be cute just came off as weird.

This reads as a rom com but has a meatier message about mental health struggles. Kat is anxiety locked in a health club, and though she knows she needs to move forward and get help, she talks herself out of confiding in her closet friend, her father, therapist and countless others as she instead hits up happy hour at the gym bar, gets massages, and soaks in the emersion tub. This book was a fun read and left me with a different understanding of why people don’t always seek the help they need.

In theory? I should’ve liked this book. Girl’s boyfriend breaks up with her. Girl snaps and secretly moves into her gym. Girl meets hot personal trainer. In reality? DNF. The fact that it was an audiobook got me farther than I would have on my own. I just found the protagonist insufferable, and with first person narration, the book was hard to bear. Perhaps a decade (or two? God, I’m old) ago this would’ve fit right in with the chick lit genre of Shopaholic et. al, but in 2022, girl call your therapist.

This one was fun and cute and a bit quirky. Definitely recommend it to a few of my friends who are into these books

Though this story started off slow for me and didn’t seem quite believable I soon gave into it and simply enjoyed the storyline as a light-hearted yet far-fetched romcom. Anxiety is real and that provided some depth. The characters were so cute and I found myself rooting for Kat and her love interest😊 Also, the narration was great!

Thankyou to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book, and it is now one of my favourite books of 2022. The narrator of the book was fantastic and she did a great job. The story was superb, and I really enjoyed it.

Kat is the main character of the story. She gets fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend Sam while she is at a health and fitness club that Sam paid for her to go to. She suffers from anxiety and has panic attacks, and after her bad news, she finds that she is unable to leave the club, as every time she tries to do so, she has a panic attack. She then has to stay there for days, and the whole story is set in the club.

I loved Kat a lot, and her story, although a bit unbelievable at times, was really interesting. I was rooting for her to be able to overcome her fears, and for her to find the love that she had been waiting for. Will she be able to do that? You will have to read the book to find out!

This is a great book, which I highly recommend!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

This is what happens when you pick a romcom book by its cover. Me getting duped by the cover of a book is now getting old. Fast.
This book was an almost DNF for me.

<b>The Story:</b>
Katherine "Kat" Noad joins the Great Fitness Hotel..err..gym to bring about a change in her life. But within an hour of going there, she receives two calls - one from her job, firing her, and the other from her boyfriend, dumping her.
As this news overwhelms her, Kat finds that she is unable to leave the gym. She has a full-blown panic attack every time she tries to step out. Thus, she ends up spending a night at the gym. Then another. Then another. Until it is nearly a week and Kat does not know what to do.
On the flip side, however, there is this handsome trainer, Marcus. Will Kat be ever able to leave the gym? What if she decides to spend her life here with Marcus?


<b>The Positives:</b>

1. The writing - The writing was really breezy. I listened to the audiobook which was more than 14 hours long but I sped through it in record time.

<b>The Negatives:</b>

Sigh.

1. Kat - The book is narrated from the first-person POV of Kat and her mind is not a nice place to be. She is petty and selfish and extremely narcissistic. Every problem she faces is because of someone else, or so she thinks. Her need to blame others for her mistakes wore thin after a while. It would have been a better idea to have multiple POVs or to write from a limited third-person narrative.
Kat's selfishness shines from every pore. One moment, she is worried about being trapped in the hotel/gym and the next moment, she is slavering over some hot hunk. Even when others point out her mistakes, she is least worried about correcting them and instead resorts to...you guessed it right...blaming it on others.
She loves drinking as well. If she is not thinking about men or sex, she is thinking about drinks. It is above me how an alcoholic can hold a job (she is a dental assistant) if she cannot get her head out of the glass. She constantly talks about how broke she is (natural, considering she has lost her job and has to pay rent as well) but hardly shows any restraint in her spending patterns. She buys new clothes multiple times. She gets others drinks. She is continuously drinking herself.
She loves repeating herself throughout the book. You learn that her surname, Noad, rhymes with Toad about 18376 times in the book. And don't even talk about the Big A (getting to this one in a minute).
Throughout the book, Kat behaves in a childish manner and there is absolutely no character arc to her. She remains the same until the end.

2. Side characters - None of the side characters seemed well-written. Sam, Kat's boyfriend of five years, is fed up with Kat's selfishness and laziness, so he gets her a gym membership. But he also breaks up with her. Why?
Kat's friend, Val, says Kat is the female version of Peter Pan, but she doesn't try to change her or do anything else to make Kat better. All she wants is to get wasted on drinks with Kat so that they can bitch about all topics under the sun.
Marcus is a trainer and that is all I know about him. No, I don't know his last name.
The gym's CEO (don't remember his name) acts all funny when Kat is discovered at the gym.

3. Mental illnesses - The cover and blurb promise a fun, laugh-a-minute romcom where a freshly dumped woman gets together with a hot trainer. What the book actually was was a 14-hour discourse on poorly managed mental health.
Kat has anxiety and experiences panic attacks in acute situations. But she doesn't do anything to set it right. She has a therapist she doesn't want to visit even though her money gets deducted for failed appointments. When she is trapped in the gym, she has the option of calling her therapist but she resolutely refuses to take this course of action.
She calls her anxiety the Big A and we are treated to hearing about the Big A for every wrong thing she has done or has happened to her. She calls her friends (multiple, yes) but she does not tell ONE of them to come and help her out of the situation.
In fact, when faced with the threat of being arrested for spending the nights at the gym, she wonders whether going to jail might be better than calling 911. Seriously, I am worried about this woman's mental condition.

4. Genre - Seriously, what genre is this book? I would classify it as women's fiction because there is no rom and no com in this supposedly romcom book. No, you cannot put in a hurried "romance" in the last two chapters with a person whose last name we don't know and who has appeared for about five minutes in the book and call it a romance.

5. The GYM - No, seriously, WHAT PLACE IS THIS? Great Fitness Gym is a gym but also a hotel because it has everything, EVERYTHING inside.
Sauna rooms? Yes.
Hair and nail salons? Yes!
Boutique that sells fancy clothes AND underwear? You got it!
Daycare where people leave their children and go to work? Of course!
Bar complete with whiskey? OMG!
Cafe?? Do you still need to ask?
I mean, why would Kat want to leave? <i>I</i> wouldn't want to leave a place that offers everything.

The book is marketed as a romcom "Perfect for fans of Sarah Adams, Tessa Bailey and Sally Thorne. " But whoever has marketed this book has never read it. They just skimmed through it, slapped on a chicklit-y cover, and sent it over to idiots like me who fell for the trick.

Overall, I am very disappointed in the book. But this is a debut and the author shows much promise in her writing. Hoping for a better next book.

1.5 stars rounded up to 2.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the audio ARC.

This was a DNF for me. This was not the cute romance. comedy that I was marketed. This book heavily leans into mental health- which I was not quite prepared for and that really ruined the reading experience for me. The premise was so promising, but the execution left a lot left to be desired. The way that the mental health issues were handled were incredibly problematic.

I liked the concept of the book. I am not sure it was my favorite execution. At times, the story seemed to drag, but then would pick up a big again. I finished the book a couple days ago, and most of the details have left me. I can’t even remember the main characters name anymore. I did like how she got out, that was a nice way to bring 2 storylines to a close. I also liked it didn’t end as a love story.

Overall, 3.5 stars. Not quite meh, not quite woah.

I do thank the author and the publishing company for allowing me to preview the book as an advanced readers copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio copy to listen to in exchange for an honest review.

This book sort of reminds me of The Good Place. You start off with a pretty sucky person who for some reason, you actually begin to like. Kat enters the gym but through a series of negative phone calls she is unable to leave.

The book does a really good job of highlighting what living with anxiety and panic attacks looks and feels like. The characters were okay and definitely relatable.

The description of this book sounded good, so despite generally going for something far darker, I decided to give it a go. At first I was put off by Kat and the fact that I felt so far removed from the lives of the characters. However, I gave it a go and really enjoyed the story. It's not quite as fluffy as first appearance suggests, and actually revolves around Kat's poor mental health and eventually the terrifying event that led her to this point in her life. I began to like Kat and all the gym employees.
Give it a chance if you want something gentle to read in the summer

It’s Kats first day at a health club. While there she is fired from her job and dumped. Kat is soon hit with a sudden onset of agoraphobia and physically can not leave the club.
Deciding she had no choice but to live at the club until her anxiety allows her to leave.

Unfortunately this book was not for me.
Kat was an extremely unlikeable character and I thought she showed some signs of narcissistic personality disorder, which was perhaps unintentional as it was never addressed.
She is fired for … quite frankly being awful and mean. And she is dumped for being … awful and mean. If I were her boss I would have fired her as well. And if I were her boyfriend, I probably wouldn’t have stayed with her for five years.
I did not feel sorry for her at all.
When she meets a woman at the club, clearly struggling like herself she uses words like “insane” and “nutcase”. Which I though was in poor taste considering this book was all about mental illness.


This is not a romantic book, and it is not a funny book. If anything it was quite sad.

All the celebrity references felt forced, I thought the banter was more
cringy than clever and the relationships Kat made throughout the book were underdeveloped.
I really wish Kat getting help for her mental illness had been addressed a little more aggressively instead of an ‘all cured’ at the very end of the book.

While I wanted to see how the story ended I didn’t particularly enjoy the ride.

Narrator 5 stars
Great voice

I'm torn with this book

As a Romantic Comedy 1 star
With the cover and description this feels like a total bait and switch when you read it. There is absolutely no comedy or romance going on for a good 90% of this book. If I had purchased this from Audible as a RomCom I absolutely would have returned it.

As General Fiction 3 stars
If this had a more serious cover to match the content of the book and was marked as general fiction, and I was looking to listen to something a little more serious I would have really enjoyed this.

First time trying this author and would definitely try again.

I never look at reviews before picking up a book, but this is an instance where I really wish I did. The cover and description of this book are completely misleading for the actual content of the book, and if I had known this before, I never would have requested this book.

The first thing I have to stress is there is nothing wrong with the writing in this book - the author's prose was really good, and it wasn't an issue. However, I went into this thinking it would be a cutesy rom-com type book, but that was not even close to what we got. The entire book was the main character working through her anxiety. Which is not a bad thing (although I personally didn't like the mental health rep much myself, I do know that everyone experiences it differently) but there was basically no romance, and even the love interest was only in like 3 scenes with the main character.

I also didn't really like the main character - I felt that her whole attitude of 'everyone else sucks and I'm such a victim to how awful they are' just didn't really work for me because she never took responsibility for her own actions. Even her ex-boyfriend (who broke up with her at the beginning of the novel) was such a horrible person to her for breaking up with her, yet the entire book, every time we saw him, he literally was only concerned for her well-being. Her actions (or lack thereof in the case of never cleaning up after herself) are why he broke up with her, yet she claimed no responsibility for it. All the characters who were not the main character were so minor that they had no real personality and I didn't care for any of them.

This was a monologue heavy novel, which isn't really my sort of thing, so while I can appreciate that it was well written, everything combine just made this not work for me. It was also really stressful reading about her anxiety in the manner that it was done, so this is definitely a strong content warning for anyone with anxiety.

I can't really say I recommend this, but at the same time, if you go in knowing that it's not as cutesy as the cover and description suggest, you might enjoy it a whole lot more than I did.

Think you’re having a bad day? Kat has you beat. Not only was she just let go from her job but her boyfriend also just broke up with her. With her world crumbling, Kat can’t seem to get a handle on her anxiety. It’s so bad she’s afraid to go outside. I guess it’s a good thing she’s currently in one heck of a health club (gym, saunas, massages, stylist, stores, restaurant, and even a bar) but can she really live inside a gym? Until she can get a handle on her anxiety she’s going to give it the old college try. I thought I was going to love this one. I mean did you just read that set up? Sounds hilarious, right? And the cover? Really cute. Let me say that if you are like me and go in expecting a really fun rom-com, you’ll be disappointed. Sure there are a few chuckles to be had, but this is most definitely not a rom-com. It’s an examination of a woman’s struggles with extreme anxiety, with much of the book being Kat’s inner monologues. That’s not to say it’s totally bad, it just really wasn’t what I was expecting. Once I accepted it wasn’t a rom-com and readjusted my expectations I managed to ‘enjoy’ the book for what it was, though with the original concept being what it was I most definitely weep for the story it could have been. If you’re looking for rom-com, look elsewhere, but if you go in understanding it’s one woman’s battle with anxiety you may enjoy it. The writing itself isn’t bad at all and I found Kate Handford’s narration quite easy to listen to, and honestly it is likely the main reason I stuck with it. Thanks to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen and review an audio ARC of Come Here Often?

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/come-here-often-ellie-center/1141420488?ean=9781803144207&bvnotificationId=b622e211-db87-11ec-9323-0a1eae97e3e1&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/209520911

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2M8XCK9S5A9KR/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'Make Me Disappear' by Jessica Payne.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Jessica Payne, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 23rd May 2022.

This is Emily Center's debut novel.

I was originally drawn to this book by its eye catching unique cover and intriguing sounding synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that this book is 'Perfect for fans of Beth O’Leary and Emily Henry.' I am a huge fan of Emily Henry so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).

This novel consists of 25 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is based in Nashville, Tennessee , USA 🇺🇸

This book is written in first person perspective and the main protagonist is Katherine Noad. The benefits of books written in first person perspective are as long as they are well written it makes you feel that you are being spoken to by the protagonist and it can create more of a bond between yourselves and them.

'Come Here Often?' ' discusses some topics that may trigger or upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Ellie discusses/includes mental illness, anxiety, panic attacks, death of a pet, death of a child, domestic violence and attempted kidnapping.

This book is very well written with vivid descriptions will that have your heart pounding on the treadmill and sweating in the sauna. The cover and synopsis suit the book perfectly.

This storyline is very easy to read and I flew through it in one sitting. It is a unique storyline, one of only a handful that I have read that is set in one location throughout. I always worry when it comes to books set in one location that I will get bored of "seeing" the same places but as 'Great Fitness' is such a large building with so many different amenities there are plenty of places to explore with Katherine. Although it is based in a gym this book is filled with so much more than fitness, from romance to rivalry, family and friends and even some crime. It is filled with love, sadness, tension, hope, loss and everything you could ask for in a romantic comedy. There were parts that made me laugh, brought me close to tears and others that made me sit up and hold my breathe. I loved all the song, music, movie and celebrity references. I read this on my kindle but I also had the audio book which I listened to in the car and on school runs. The narrator was fantastic and the voice was perfect for Katherine, she had me hooked on the audio book along with me already being hooked on the book itself. The narrator portrayed Katherine's anxiety perfectly. Although this book is mainly sold as a romantic comedy there are some serious topics discussed such as depression and anxiety so if you are looking for a laugh a minute romcom this may not be the book for you. However, personally, I enjoyed the mix in emotions and I thought Ellie intertwined funny situations with darker ones perfectly and also helps to bring anxiety awareness to readers.

The characters are all well described and strong. There is also a wide range of personalities which I enjoyed getting to know. I became completely invested in Kath and her story and hope she does get the help she needs. I was very happy in how the book ended for her. My heart went out to her on several occasions as she had gone through so much as a child and continued to struggle into adulthood with her mental health along with everything happening in her personal life. I really liked Jack who seemed like a really sweet guy and in a way I would have liked to see more of him and see how things worked out if Marcus wasn't in the picture. I won't say any more than that as I don't want to spoil it for future readers. However, I did like Marcus and thought he was really sweet. I did not get on with Sam and thought that he didn't seem affected at all considering how long he had been with Katherine. I absolutely adored sweet little Rosie and hope that things improve for herself and Raline. I wasn't a fan of Katherine's parents and thought that they should have been a lot more supportive and considerative of her feelings and mental health. Lura was definitely a strange one who I didn't like at all when I first met her but I believe she was misunderstood and was redeemed by the end. Regardless whether you loved them or hated them these characters work perfectly well to make this a very enjoyable read.

Well done Ellie on a great debut novel, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next 🥂.

Overall a unique and intriguing storyline that will keep you turning the pages.


Genres covered in this book include Women's Fiction, Romance, Humour, Romantic Comedy, General Humourous Fiction and Comedy amongst others.


I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of Beth O’Leary, 'Bridget Jones Diary' and Emily Henry.


323 pages.

This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle or free on kindle unlimited (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 4 /5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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